Chinese Living In U.s. Fear Return Home

Jie Hu looked forward to the day he could return to his native China and put his graduate degrees in physics and business to use.

``There are a lot of opportunities, for me and for my country. China is like virgin land,`` said Hu, a 26-year-old student completing his doctorate in business at Northwestern University.

But, suddenly, getting a good job is the least of Hu`s concerns.

After China`s Communist government violently put down last summer`s demonstrations for democracy, killing hundreds of Chinese, Hu organized and participated in protests by Chinese students at American colleges and universities.

If he and his friends went home now, Hu said, ``We could be put in jail.``

Seven months after China`s bloody crackdown, many of the estimated 40,000 Chinese students in the U.S. remain unsure about when, if ever, they will want to return to their homeland.

The students` predicament is expected to be the subject of renewed debate in Washington this week over whether the U.S. government should do more to ensure that the students won`t be forced to return home until conditions in China improve.

Congress will attempt to override President Bush`s veto of a resolution that would have extended the students` stays at least four years and let them apply to remain even longer.

Most Chinese students are in the U.S. on so-called ``J-visas,`` which require students to return home for at least two years after completing their studies. J-visas are the Chinese government`s way of ensuring that its overseas students come back to share their new American-taught skills.

Bush has said the veto override is unnecessary. After he vetoed the congressional resolution, Bush issued an executive order providing the same protection to the students.

He said extending the students` stays was his job, not that of Congress.

But many of the students say they want their protection guaranteed by more than a presidential directive, which can be retracted at any time.

Many say they do not trust Bush. Shortly after the democracy movement was crushed, Bush announced that he was cutting off high-level diplomatic ties with China. Months later, it was revealed that he sent two envoys secretly to China to meet with Communist officials during the ban.

Chinese students also say an override would send a strong message to their government that Congress must be satisfied with conditions inside China before the students go home.

Chinese officials ``feel they only have to negotiate with the White House,`` said Hu, a Midwest organizer of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars.

The group, which says it has members on 200 American campuses, was formed last July at the University of Illinois at Chicago in response to the outrage many Chinese students in the U.S. felt toward their government because of the massacre of protesters in Beijing`s Tiananmen Square.

Like Hu, the vice president of the student federation, Lianchao Han, came to the U.S. to prepare for success in China.

``I wanted to go home to start my own law firm,`` said Han, a 33-year-old student from Beijing who last year received a degree from Yale University Law School.

But since the crackdown, Han said, ``You cannot practice law. The government has persecuted the democracy movement leaders. Thirty people were sentenced to death and given four days to appeal. There is law. But there are no lawyers.``

Members of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars say they have been videotaped and photographed at rallies by Chinese government representatives in the U.S. Hu and Han speak of being placed on a

``black list`` by their government.

Hu said Chinese students nationwide have received harassing phone calls after participating in protests. He said one Chinese student at Northwestern repeatedly found the air let out of his car tires and then received through the campus mail a bullet that had been painted black.

Baoqi Guo, a spokesman for the Chinese consul general in Chicago, dismissed the fears and the suspicion that the government is harassing students as ``nonsense.``

Cheng-Yong Wang, a 38-year-old student living in Chicago said he always thought he would go back to China and get a good teaching job. But now he can`t imagine living in his home country.

``I can`t say whatever I want to say,`` he said.

His wife, Fengshi Yang, 28, is pursuing a doctorate degree in music composition at the University of Chicago.

Like her husband, she also can`t imagine returning to China now. But she added, ``I miss home.``